This morning we said good bye to Chiang Mai and headed to the airport for our flight to Surat Thani, a two hour flight into central Thailand.
A driver met us at the airport in Surat Thani and we drove about an hour and a half to our accommodation in Khao Sok National Park. The weather was overcast and the landscape is green with round top mountains, lush with vegetation. The park is known as the Gullin of Thailand with its eroded limestone mountains. Beautiful.
Ok, John out did himself when he booked our accommodation at Art’s Riverview Lodge. We are staying in a treehouse, lots of steps to get up to and surrounded by jungle. There are lots of shuttered windows all the way around our house but we are told that we need to make sure they are locked when we go out or go to bed or else monkeys (or other wildlife) will get in.
Apparently there are monkeys, tigers, tapirs, bears, wild boars, limurs, cobras, pythons, bats, all manner of snakes, lizards, toads and birds to name just a few.
Soon after we got into the treehouse a thunderstorm erupted. It was amazing, just like the ones we listen to on the iPad at home when we can’t sleep except the noise of falling rain in the jungle was much louder.
We went back to the main lodge for supper. The storm was over so we ate on the deck, under a grass canopy roof, overlooking the river, jungle and a limestone cliff.
Little toads hop onto the deck every now and then…I’m not sure what they’re looking for.
After Bangkok and Chiang Mai, this is so peaceful. John and I just sat in the candlelight at our table listening to all the different frog and toad songs. This is pure magic.
